Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
The Shredder (Oroku Saki) is the main Supervillain of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. At one point or another in every incarnation of the TMNT stories, he has been the archenemy of Splinter and the Turtles. He is also known as the leader of the New York City branch of the Foot Clan. Films The Shredder was played by James Saito in the first movie and by François Chau in the second, while his immense Super Shredder form was played by professional wrestler Kevin Nash. In all cases, the character was voice-acted by David McCharen. The Shredder's costume was, in the first movie, originally the same as in the original comic, with a red color. However, this was changed in the sequel to a violet color, reflecting the more cartoonish nature of the second film. In both movies, he also had a sliver and black cape. In the Japanese versions, the Shredder is voiced by Norio Wakamoto (1st movie in VHS version), Hidekatsu Shibata (first movie in TV version), and Takeshi Watabe (second movie). ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (1990) In the first movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi (Oroku Nagi is not mentioned) lived in Japan and both loved a woman named Tang Shen, but Tang Shen only loved Yoshi. Rather than fight Saki honorably, Yoshi followed Shen's plan to leave for the United States. Saki followed them to New York City, where he first murdered Tang Shen alone in her home, then ambushed Yoshi when he returned, tired from construction work. Yoshi’s pet rat Splinter escaped during the fight, clawing Saki's face before doing so. In return, Saki took a swipe at Splinter's ear with his katana, slicing a small part of it off. After this incident, it was said that Saki is never heard from again. The comic book adaptation of the film retains the original story behind the creation of Shredder, with Nagi being slain and Saki coming to America to seek vengeance. Saki essentially becomes a Fagin-esque crime figure. A brutal and Machiavellian leader of a ring of child thieves, he manipulates and recruits troubled teens and teaches them ninjutsu to turn them into a group of skilled thieves and assassins called the Foot Clan. As their leader, Saki took on the persona of the "Shredder" and became a fearless "benevolent" cult leader, with the aid of his second-in-command Tatsu. He rewards the teens with a hideout that includes a skateboard park, cigarettes, junk food, music, pizzas, soft drinks, guitars, comics, pool tables, television sets and arcade games. However, he has no real regard for children that do his bidding. Shredder orders the Foot to "silence" April O'Neil, who was getting too much information of the Foot public. Due to the Turtles' interference with this, the Shredder had Splinter kidnapped and imprisoned him in his warehouse hideout. He then beat him regularly to get information about the Turtles and their techniques. Eventually, a furious Shredder decided to stop the Turtles himself, which led to a rooftop battle. During the battle, the Shredder defeated all of the Turtles with his superior abilities and readies to kill Leonardo with his yari. Splinter, freed by Turtles' allies, Danny Pennington and Casey Jones, intervenes and reveals that he knew exactly who Shredder was, and that his master was Hamato Yoshi. The villain unmasks himself to reveal the scarring, which confirms his real name was Oroku Saki. The Shredder then charges towards Splinter, but the ninja master vaults him over the edge of the building with Michelangelo's nunchaku causing him to fall and landing in a parked garbage truck far below. Casey Jones then activates the crushing mechanism; the viewers are then shown a closeup of the Shredder's helmet being crushed. ''TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze'' (1991) In the second movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, the Turtles believe that since Casey had crushed him in the garbage truck, the Shredder was dead. It is soon revealed that Shredder had survived the crushing and revitalized his Foot Clan to get vengeance on the Turtles. After finding the Foot "fallback" headquarters (a junkyard), he sent a member of the Foot to follow April, hoping to find the Turtles through her. When April's team was doing a report on T.G.R.I. in New Jersey, Fred (a member of April's team, and Foot agent) found some mutated dandelions and sent one to the Shredder. He then orders Tatsu to obtain a sample of the T.G.R.I. mutagen that mutated the Turtles, as well as kidnap researcher Jordan Perry. Using the last mutagen and Perry's research, the Shredder creates his own mutants, Tokka and Rahzar, from a stolen snapping turtle and a brown wolf respectively. Though initially enraged at their infant-like intelligence, he soon plays it to his advantage by manipulating the mutants as they imprinted him as their surrogate mother. After a failed attempt to kill the Turtles in the junkyard using a captured Raphael, Shredder unleashed Tokka and Rahzar onto a city street to "have fun" and destroy it. The Foot spy then gave April a message for the Turtles: that the Shredder would turn the mutants loose on Central Park next if they did not accede to a rematch at the construction site. After the Turtles de-mutate the two mutants (with help from Perry) and defeat Tatsu in a nightclub, the Shredder appears and threatens to mutate an innocent woman with a small reserve mutagen vial (the canister was knocked away by the Turtles' new human ally, Keno). Before he can mutate her, he is stopped when the Turtles play a keytar at full volume, sending the Shredder flying through a window from the force of a blown speaker. When the Turtles follow him outside on a pier, they discover that the Shredder has used the mutagen vial on himself. He is transformed into a massive "Super Shredder," an almost mindless giant-mutant being with immense superhuman strength. During his fight with the Turtles, Super Shredder knocks down the pier's pilings in a mindless rage, which then collapses onto him with the Turtles falling into the water below. Though the Turtles survive, the Shredder meets his demise from getting crushed by the destroyed pieces of the pier. ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III'' (1993) and TMNT (2007) The Shredder did not appear in the third film but is shown briefly at the beginning of the fourth film to help give the backstory of the Turtles, and his helmet is visible at the end of the movie. The possibility of his return is also strongly hinted at in the end of the film by Karai. However, the established storyline was been abandoned in favor of the 2014 reboot. ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (2014) Japanese American actor Tohoru Masamune portrayed the Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Initially, William Fichtner was intended to portray a Caucasian version of the Shredder, with the anglicized real name of Eric Sacks, instead of Oroku Saki. This idea was abandoned late in production in favour of featuring a Shredder of authentic Japanese ancestry, and the film went through re-shoots to change Fitchner's character of Sacks into being the Shredder's adoptive son. The change came too late to alter the film's Nintendo 3DS tie-in video game, and Sacks remains the Shredder in it. In contrast to much of the brand's history, Sacks remains the character connected to the Turtles' origins, having created them alongside April O'Neil's father; the Shredder (never referred to with any name other than his codename) has no connection to Splinter or the Turtles, and while he is shown to have scars on his face, it is not revealed how he suffered them. In the earliest stages of development for the film, Shredder was reimagined as "Colonel Schrader", the military leader of the black-ops unit "The Foot", revealed later in the script to be a yellow-skinned, red-eyed alien with the ability to sprout spikes. This idea was dropped after Evan Daugherty was hired to rewrite the script in early 2013. ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Half Shell'' (2016) In April 2015, it was announced that the role has been re-cast, where Brian Tee will portray Shredder in the 2016 sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Half Shell. External links * [https://web.archive.org/web/20051018042755/http://www.ninjaturtles.com/html/profile7.htm The Shredder profile on the official TMNT website] Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series Category:Characters Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) Character Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze Character Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) Character